Yahoo Mail revamped with cleaner, less cluttered look

Yahoo has given its email service a complete revamp across the Web and mobile devices, with a cleaner and less cluttered interface. The updated Yahoo Mail will be available on the Web, as well as on Windows 8 and Android and iOS.

Yahoo has given its email service a complete revamp across the Web and mobile devices, with a cleaner and less cluttered interface. The updated Yahoo Mail will be available on the Web, as well as on Windows 8 and Android and iOS.

The facelift is the first major change to the service since former Google executive Marissa Mayer took the helm of Yahoo this year. Mayer announced the changes to Yahoo Mail in a blog post, saying: "You've told us loud and clear that you want fewer distractions when it comes to email."

On the Web version, Yahoo Mail's design has fewer buttons, attachment thumbnail previews on top of messages, improved search and a roomy reading and composing message panel.

On mobile devices, the look is consistent across platforms and includes new features such as multiple message deletion when you select and swipe emails, as well as similar functionality for marking messages as read/unread. You can attach photos from the composer panel, too, and there's infinite scrolling for your inbox list, so you don't have to go through numbered messages pages. On Windows 8 you will also be able to see messages right from the start screen.

The new Yahoo Mail apps are available now, while the Web version is due to be rolled out in the coming days.

Yahoo Mail is still the most popular U.S. webmail service, according to comScore, so the company has to keep up with steep competition from number two and three, Gmail and Hotmail/Outlook. Google revamped its Gmail app for iOS last week with a new look, while Microsoft is migrating Hotmail users to the new redesigned Outlook interface.